The present invention is related to data processing systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for identifying flaws in a channel or circuit associated with a data processing system.
FIG. 1A shows a prior art data transfer system 100 including a low density parity check encoder (LDPC encoder) 110 that encodes user data 105 to create an encoded output 115. Encoded output 115 is transferred to a data detector 130 via a channel 120. Channel 120 may be, for example, a storage medium or a transmission medium. Data detector 130 performs a data detection on the received data to provide a detected output 135. Detected output 135 is provided to an LDPC decoder 140. The result of LDPC decoder 140 is provided as a transferred user data 145. As shown in FIG. 1B, encoded output 115 includes user data 105 that is augmented with LDPC data 150 during the encoding performed by LDPC encoder 110. User data 105 is ‘N’ bits in length. The combination of user data 105 and LDPC data 150 is ‘K’ bits in length, and LDPC data 150 includes various parity information that may be used to decode the user data. In a typical operation, a user data pattern is provided via user data 105 to LDPC encoder 110. This data is encoded and processed through the other blocks. Where the operation is successful, transferred user data 145 is the same as the originally provided user data 105. The ability to test the channel and other aspects of the system is somewhat limited.
Hence, for at least the aforementioned reasons, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for identifying defective regions on a storage medium and/or in data processing circuitry.